1 BACKGROUND
The majority of children and young people who are considered to be looked after in Scotland will come into one of the following two categories.
- Looked after at home, where the child or young person is subject to a Supervision Requirement with no condition of residence through the Children's Hearing system. The child or young person continues to live in their normal place of residence ( i.e. often the family home).
- Looked after away from home ( i.e. away from their normal place of residence), where the child or young person is subject to a Supervision Requirement with a condition of residence through the Children's Hearing system, or is provided with accommodation under Children (Scotland) Act 1995 section 25 (voluntary agreement) or is the subject of a Parental Responsibility Order (C(S)A 95 section 86). The child or young person is cared for away from their normal place of residence, e.g. in a foster care placement, residential/ children's unit, a residential school, a secure unit or a kinship placement.
Throughout this document, the term 'looked after children' is used to represent all looked after children and young people irrespective of whether they are considered to be looked after at home or looked after away from home.
As at 31 March 2008 there were 14,886 children and young people looked after by local authorities in Scotland, an increase of 6% since 2007. 43% of children looked after were placed at home with parents; 16% were looked after by friends or relatives; 29% were looked after by foster carers; 11% were in residential accommodation.
In January 2007, the Scottish Executive published the report Looked After Children and Young People: We Can and Must Do Better. The report set out an action plan aimed at building sustainable improvement in the educational and other life outcomes of Scotland's looked after children and care leavers. Specific reference was made in the report to the need to improve data collection and reporting, it stated:
"It is essential that we have accurate information on all of our looked after children and young people in order to meet their needs most effectively.
Action 7: We will continue to work in partnership with local authorities to deliver a more robust and comprehensive data collection and reporting framework in relation to the educational outcomes of Scotland's looked after children and young people."
Following the publication of We Can and Must Do Better, the Scottish Government established a number of working groups, overseen by an implementation board, to take forward and where appropriate deliver on each of the 19 actions from the report. The membership of the working groups and the implementation board was drawn from across Scottish local authorities, the Scottish Government and relevant stakeholder organisations. The data working group, which met regularly between June 2007 and October 2008, was tasked with the delivery of action 7. This document represents the work of the working group and their response to action 7; the chairperson having approved both this document and the new reporting framework for publication on behalf of the group. Details of the membership of the data working group can found in Appendix A.
The development of the proposed new reporting framework has also been influenced by feedback from colleagues from the national Looked After Children Education Forum; a draft of the new framework was discussed and endorsed at their meeting on 4th December 2008.